The Nevada Brewery (also known as: Old Nevada Brewery, or Old Stone Brewery, or Stonehouse) is a historic building located at 107 Sacramento Street in
Nevada City,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. A brewery on the site dates back to 1857, with granite walls constructed in 1882.
The Nevada Brewery's time of significance was during the period of 1850 through 1899.
Though its original use was as a
brewery
A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of bee ...
, it later served the community as a restaurant, bowling alley, stable, and dance hall.
Structure
In 1882, George Gehrig, a local businessman, hired Italian
stonemasons and Chinese laborers to construct a building up the street from the
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...
's shop.
While the architect, builder, and engineer are unknown,
the three-story structure was constructed from locally quarried
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...
blocks. The stone and wood building is in size.
Antique fixtures came from the
Sarah and
John Kidder home in
Grass Valley, California
Grass Valley is a city in Nevada County, California, United States. Situated at roughly in elevation in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, this northern Gold Country city is by car from Sacramento, from Sacramento ...
.
An owner of the brewery believed that the carved wooden doors were also from the Kidder mansion.
Construction included a storage cave dug into the hillside,
used for aging
cask
A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, u ...
s of
ale.
It was accessed from inside the building during the time the building covered a space that's now a patio area.
The cave had been connected to other parts of the city via tunnels that were filled in almost a hundred years later when
California State Route 49 became a freeway.
After being vacant for more than two decades, the building was reopened as The Old Brewery with great crafted beer and food. It was renovated in 2004 and opened as the Stonehouse Restaurant, featuring an 1884 back-bar from
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
.
2008-2010 As Stonehouse Hospitality Academy trained many students who serve the community.
Since 2010, it became an event venues with a full bar, cave, two kitchens, and three dance floors. Diverse space for office, meeting, class, event, festival. It is located in the heart of downtown Nevada City, with full parking lot next to the Little Deer Creek.
Historic recognition
The Nevada Brewery was listed in the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
on September 12, 1985.
A bronze plaque attached to the building states:
"The Old Brewery
Constructed of granite blocks from the Sierras about 1882 where Simon C Hieronimus and family brewed and served lager beer
Lager () is beer which has been brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "lager" comes from the German for "storage ...
to Nevada City, Queen of the Northern Mines and hydraulic mining communities.
Dedicated April 21, 1985"
The Stonehouse was honored in 2008 by the California Heritage Council.
See also
*
References
External links
*
{{National Register of Historic Places
Brewery buildings in the United States
Buildings and structures in Nevada City, California
History of Nevada City, California
Industrial buildings completed in 1882
Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in California
National Register of Historic Places in Nevada County, California
1882 establishments in California